1. Technical Field
The invention relates to information management and navigation. More particularly, the invention relates to an information platform that collects and integrates data, observations, and intelligence; provides controls for multiple methods of information navigation and analysis; and allows details to be digested in the context of other data, regardless of its type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Regardless of their specific job title, knowledge workers in the high-technology and financial service industries perform research and analysis function every day. Their work requires navigation between different types of information, from stock quotes, market capital, product comparisons, and industry commentary to internal sales figures and quotas. The decision making process for such knowledge workers is compounded by the fact that vital market information exists in widely dispersed locations and in many varied formats. Furthermore, when the research is complete, there is a high probability that a significant piece of data was overlooked.
The following examples illustrate these issues:
A research analyst from a large investment bank must make an investment recommendation for a specific company. The analyst must determine how the company's stock might perform in relation to the market, as well as its competitors. The analyst must determine the industry perception of the company and its products, in conjunction with the possibilities for future product launches. The analyst must also understand what other financial analysts are forecasting for this company's future stock, and the markets overall trend. PA0 A VP of marketing must decide what new features to implement in an established software product in light of competitive threats and a raft of emerging technologies. The VP must determine the relevance of the emerging technologies, assess competitive activities, document consumer response to similar product initiatives, and review analyst predictions. The new plan must determine a prior plan's effectiveness by comparing internal initiatives with media coverage during the following months. PA0 An executive team wants to compare the company's productivity with that of the competition. The team must research revenues and expenses within specific departments, identify sales per employee, and unit costs and compare them with the top five competitors. PA0 Collects and integrates data, observations and intelligence; PA0 Provides controls for multiple methods of information navigation and analysis; PA0 Allows details to be digested in the context of other data, regardless of its type. PA0 The user can comb a data source catalog, looking for a specific nugget(s) of information, such as the names of companies selling virus-protection software. Collection profiles can gather bodies of information with minimal input. A user, for example, enters a single company name, and the information platform gathers financial, organizational, product and manufacturing information about the company and its competitors. If the information is not available in the catalog, the user can find the information using traditional means (such as a search engine, or by combing through files on the network, browsing) and the information platform can automatically add the new information source to the catalog. An analysis template guides a user through the data collection, interpretation and analysis process for a specific topic, e.g. a template comparing the effectiveness of corporate communications on press coverage. By selecting an analysis template, the user is walked through the data collection cycle. PA0 A user analyzing data in Excel wants to add an additional row to a grid. By extending the Microsoft Office suite with the information platform menus and buttons, a user browses, selects and imports information using the catalog from within the desktop application. PA0 Information can be retrieved once and used multiple times--reducing access and subscription fees, connection time and network traffic. The information platform automatically gathers information updates and stores them without client intervention--data are always updated and historically tracked. PA0 The store maintains a growing base of information--the system becomes increasingly valuable over time. The store manages complex relationships between information elements--allowing for sophisticated comparisons and context when viewing data. PA0 Base information about the specific information element (from where it was obtained, the data format); and PA0 The relationship of the information to other information in the store. PA0 A user can navigate the store by roaming through different topics and subtopics. Information can be accessed in many ways, using varied pathways. Information on a trade show, for example, can be accessed from an Events section, or by selecting a product, then the product's company, and then seeing at which trade shows the company exhibits it products (or is scheduled to exhibit its products). PA0 A sophisticated search engine provides a quick way to find individual information nuggets without having to navigate the store. PA0 Quick Reports provide instant analysis (often in graphical form) of a specific topic. Quick reports compare, for example, companies advertising expenditures and gross sales revenue. The information platform knows what information to retrieve from the store and how to display it. These quick reports are similar to Quicken reports, which take checkbook transactions and display interesting trends and facts gleaned from the source data. PA0 Information Visualization Controls provide unique ways to view multiple data elements in a single control. PA0 Analysis templates extend the notion of Quick Reports and provide a framework for analysis on a specific topic. The template includes a `Score Card` guideline for tracking information (such as revenue numbers and sales figures) that must be gathered for complete analysis. Other templates include a collection of graphs and tables that are germane to the analysis, and skeleton Microsoft Office documents which provide the final report framework. PA0 The information platform client takes advantage of the latest Microsoft Explorer technologies and uses a combination of Java, JavaScript, ActiveX, and dynamic HTML to provide a sophisticated information delivery platform.
Like a maze with doors and hallways, analysis may require a return trip backward through historical information with each new finding or insight. The traversing of isolated information, from paper reports, to internal databases to external Internet news sources and back to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is arduous and requires significant time investment.
H. Pajak, Electronic Library, European Patent Application No. 472070 (filed Aug. 9, 1991) discloses an electronic library metaphor on a computer workstation that includes shared books with data base metaphor, a reference books metaphor, and a card catalog metaphor in one system that allows large object oriented data base be organized and accessed in an exclusive environment and that allows access to screen icons, creates a visual hierarchy of related and shared objects, and allows mutually exclusive access to the metaphors within the library.
S -Y Hsu, Process For Identifying Simple and Complex Objects From Fused Images And Map Data, U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,970 (May 20, 1997) discloses a method of identifying and/or extracting an object from multiple fused information sources, such as amps and images. The systems allows a user to integrate information freely from multiple sources, such as maps, socioeconomic data, and various types of images. Data is first retrieved and then processed to transform its pixel representation to a region representation. The region representation is then refined by merging mechanisms, such as segmentation. The identified and/or extracted object can then be visualized by the user. Features or objects can then be extracted using the user's expert rules and confidence levels, which confidence levels may be derived by fuzzy logic.
An Information Retrieval System, European Patent Application No. 774722 (filed Nov. 15, 1996) provides a system in which design and content are separated. In this system, an information retrieval server (IR) indexes and searches stories in titles. INdexing takes place when a title is released to the network by a publisher workstation. The IR server inter-relates title, section, and story objects by their globally unique identifiers and creates a routing table which is used to located objects across multiple database partitions. The IR search service is requested in two different way at customer runtime. The first way is the resolution of the search objects to retrieve matching stories. The retrieved stories are concatenated and poured into the area defined by the dynamic control when the title is viewed. In the second way, the IR search service is requested when a search is initiated by a customer using a "find" dialog to search across all stories in one or more titles, both dynamic and static.
It would be advantageous to provide an application that automated the collection of data, provided a method for organizing the library of information and provided analysis using multiple content-types, and thereby provide a market understanding necessary to execute rapid and knowledgeable decision-making.